Not one for shyness, Halsey—a twenty-year-old alt-pop singer with bold-hued hair and a remarkably unfiltered social media presence—set out to pique curiosity with the new color-saturated video for "Ghost." Directed by Malia James, it finds her halfway around the world in a hotel room high above the bright lights of Tokyo—and without her usual stubbly co-star. "I was pretty much like, 'ok, enough videos of me and some male lead making out,'" she told The FADER. "I wanted to approach this one from a different perspective."
The video depicts a lovelorn protagonist played by Halsey, who is sporting a day-glo bob à la Charlotte in Lost in Translation, but "the rest is for the viewer to decide," she said. "Is it a friend, a girlfriend, a part of herself? I wanted to see some representation of a lesbian relationship that wasn't over sexualized. Just two people in love—or at least they used to be." "Ghost" will be featured on Halsey's upcoming full-length debut, Badlands, which is out August 28 on Astralwerks; pre-order it on iTunes now.
